How Does Wendy's Flavor Its Frostys?

The concept of a Frosty is synonymous with Wendy's. The not-quite-soft-serve and not-quite-milkshake treat with its mild chocolate flavor seems pretty straightforward. But for years, I've simply assumed it gets its flavor from its dairy base. As in, it's all pre-blended together, including its flavoring, then dumped in a machine from a foodservice bag. But a closer look at the company's website reveals that I've actually had it wrong this whole time.

Wendy's Frosty FAQ section says, "There's a vanilla base made from milk and sugar — and then we add a custom syrup blend for our seasonal flavors." This seems like it shouldn't be a big deal, but to me this is actually more interesting than you'd think. That's because Wendy's does a really consistent job of making sure that syrup is totally incorporated in Frostys to the point where you never see uneven stripes of syrup in your cup. I've seen shakes from rival chains like McDonald's that aren't mixed well, so you can see striations from when the syrup was added, resulting in an uneven drinking experience. Because of that, no two shakes seem to end up tasting the same, so ordering one always feels like a mixed bag. In contrast, Frostys have always been consistently well-blended every time I've had one.

Wendy's has historically made its limited-time releases in the form of sandwiches and other savory foods, but recently it's been on a rapid clip of releasing novel flavors of Frostys. There was the Triple Berry Frosty in the summer of 2024, followed by the Pineapple Under the Sea Frosty to celebrate its Spongebob Squarepants collaboration (which had a pineapple-mango swirl in it). And its most recent Frosty flavor, the Salted Caramel Frosty, came almost immediately after.

That's not to say Wendy's hasn't had limited-time Frostys in the past, but they've been decidedly simpler, like the Strawberry Frosty, Peppermint Frosty, and the Pumpkin Spice Frosty, all of which were seasonal. But it looks like those flavors weren't defined by premade mixes, but rather syrups that are blended into the vanilla dairy base at every store, and those machines must do a whole lot of mixing, because you'd have no idea that the flavor wasn't just built into the base already.